A Sip of Infinity

Evolution

Hemlock had the weirdest effect on my brain, it not only enhanced my senses, memory, and reflexes but also sent positive stimulants across my brain and it manipulated my instincts like never before. After the encounter with Harold, I gave a close look at my house and became aware of the nastily untidy condition especially in my room; clothes were scattered all across the room, the toilet stank horribly capable of sending my landlord into a coma suppose he ever visited my flat and the kitchen was a hopeless mess with numerous utensils to be washed and the floor to be wiped. 

Instantaneously, I grabbed the mop and got to work. Within a span of fifteen minutes, the house was transformed and everything was spick and span and fully organized. When I finished, my eyes swam towards my bag which contained a mound of homework to be tackled and a few projects to be handled. However, boosted by the heavenly liquid, everything got accomplished satisfactorily.

My eyes opened quite lazily as the scorching sunlight struck me on the face through the window. My head thumped heavily as if a rock had been placed on it. I felt exceptionally ordinary as no signal of brilliance lit my brain and the headache continued to torment me. However, I could fathom one fact through this experience which was accurate, that the effects of hemlock had worn out and were meant to last for forty-eight hours. At the instant this piece of knowledge hit me, I fled towards the drawer and grabbed the bottle of hemlock and took a shot and with the effect of lightning striking a pole, enhanced Jared was back.

‘Impressive,’ exclaimed Mr. Lupin, the math teacher, who was utterly astonished at my flawless assignment. “Well….” he began, eyeing me humorously, it appears that the sun has risen from the North today. Have you done this on your own?” he asked suspiciously, suspecting me of plagiarism. However, his mouth was left hanging, as I solved the unequivocally tedious questions on calculus that he displayed on the board to test me within seconds, causing him to declare a most reluctant round of applause from my classmates.

During the lunch hour, I sat in my usual solitary bench at the corner end of the school cafeteria, munching on my favorite hamburger and chilly fries. It was quite astonishing that even my taste buds had been enhanced to a whole new level as I could feel the flavors with more depth and relish their taste, despite even gobbling up the food hastily. At that instant, I felt my senses raising an alarm as Emily, who walked past me carrying her food tray tripped on the mopped floor (whose wetness I could notice conspicuously), and with lightning adrenaline rush striking me, I shot up and caught hold of her using one arm, grabbed her tray and ladled it with the food skilfully which fell through mid-air.

“Wow!” she exclaimed in awe, staring at me with a glow in her eyes which was rare in my case, as I raised her up and handed over her tray. “See you around Jared” she added with a smile, and walked off, causing my insides to explode with ultimate joy and exhilaration. Impressing Emily was the biggest and most crucial achievement using hemlock according to me. But along with the gloat that I felt, I realized that I had crossed dangerous waters as Michael and his muscular buddies approached me, apparently flexing their fists and muscles. Michael Warner, a heavily-built, obnoxiously tall black guy and my senior, glared at me with sheer intimidation, he had a huge crush on Emily who considered him just as a good friend and a jolly senior, which he was, but only in front of her.

“Well, well, well.” he began, gluing his eyes at me. “Looks like this little rat here requires a beating for meddling with my girl,” he exclaimed with a scornful jeer.

“Well, sorry to interrupt you Michael, but she rather be meddling with a real person than with a fake personality like yours.” I snapped tactfully, staring him back in the eye. My words had an instant and electrical effect on him as he bit his lower lip and raised his fists to punch me, but I was too brisk as I rose up and moved aside, causing him to fall on my chair which tumbled down. 

His buddies ran to raise him to his feet as he roared with fury and ran towards me like a bull. I became fearful, as I couldn’t really fight with anyone and I was a skinny shrimp. Instantaneously, clear images of the combat scenes that I had ever watched in various movies got recollected in my mind and I applied those moves and caught Michael’s right arm, as he attempted to punch me, and jabbed it hard with my elbow, thus, leading to swelling in his nerves as his roar turned into a scream of pain. 

With that brutal move, I jerked his arm and slammed him onto the ground on his back with a mundane finality. His g**g watched me with their eyeballs nearly popped out, thoroughly intimidated by the manner in which a bony guy like me had beaten their beefy leader, and without a single word, they scurried away, leaving the unconscious guy on the ground. Feeling a sort of sympathy for him, I sprinkled some water onto his face and he got up with a start, utterly puzzled as to what exactly had hit him.

“Here,” I said, offering my hand to raise him onto his feet which he surprisingly did not refuse. “Where’s my g**g?” he nearly whispered looking around like a person who had lost his way. “They ran off,” I broke it to him, in a sympathetic voice. “Like all false people,” saying that I turned to walk away but he restrained me with an apology and passed an invitation of friendship to me which I gladly accepted.

The rest of the day was filled with accomplishments as I received top marks in the Chemistry Lab experiment which was basically to extract caffeine from a cup of coffee, one of the most complicated and tedious experiments ever handed to us. 

The experiment was supposed to be a research paper that had to be submitted at the end of the year, however, with my mind magnified to an incredible extent of evolution, I raced to the conclusion, which unambiguously was accurate, within the lab hour. The only portion left was the written part, therefore, I received a golden badge from our Chemistry Professor who declared it as an extraordinary achievement. Moreover, I was invited by the soccer coach to play in a friendly inter-house match. I was rather a good soccer player in general, but in today’s game, my abilities were advanced to the next level. My brain allowed me to access the opponents’ body language very closely and hence, I could predict their every move. In addition to that, I could recollect the feints and skillful dribbles I had ever watched on television by professional players and was able to replicate them flawlessly as a result, I scored six goals and provided seven perfect assists.

In the last few minutes of the game,  I dribbled through four nervous defenders with lightning speed and was one on one with the keeper…I felt a terrible jerk on my head, like a sudden migraine attack, or as if hit by an object with the force of a wrecking ball from behind. The blow was so powerful that I nearly got a brain stroke, nevertheless, I attempted to prevent my brain from losing its stability and the ball remained under my feet. However, within that time the ball slipped away from my legs and I was sent flying into the air as the pressurized keeper who was sweating profusely slide-tackled me. I fell, with a gut-wrenching pang onto the ground…and knew no more.